/**
 * ***************************************************************************** Copyright (c) 2000,
 * 2009 IBM Corporation and others. All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this
 * distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 *
 * <p>Contributors: IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 * *****************************************************************************
 */
package org.eclipse.core.resources;

/**
 * A project nature descriptor contains information about a project nature obtained from the plug-in
 * manifest (<code>plugin.xml</code>) file.
 *
 * <p>Nature descriptors are platform-defined objects that exist independent of whether that
 * nature's plug-in has been started. In contrast, a project nature's runtime object (<code>
 * IProjectNature</code>) generally runs plug-in-defined code.
 *
 * @see IProjectNature
 * @see IWorkspace#getNatureDescriptor(String)
 * @since 2.0
 * @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 * @noextend This interface is not intended to be extended by clients.
 */
public interface IProjectNatureDescriptor {
  /**
   * Returns the unique identifier of this nature.
   *
   * <p>The nature identifier is composed of the nature's plug-in id and the simple id of the nature
   * extension. For example, if plug-in <code>"com.xyz"</code> defines a nature extension with id
   * <code>"myNature"</code>, the unique nature identifier will be <code>"com.xyz.myNature"</code>.
   *
   * @return the unique nature identifier
   */
  public String getNatureId();

  /**
   * Returns a displayable label for this nature. Returns the empty string if no label for this
   * nature is specified in the plug-in manifest file.
   *
   * <p>Note that any translation specified in the plug-in manifest file is automatically applied.
   *
   * @return a displayable string label for this nature, possibly the empty string
   */
  public String getLabel();

  /**
   * Returns the unique identifiers of the natures required by this nature. Nature requirements are
   * specified by the <code>"requires-nature"</code> element on a nature extension. Returns an empty
   * array if no natures are required by this nature.
   *
   * @return an array of nature ids that this nature requires, possibly an empty array.
   */
  public String[] getRequiredNatureIds();

  /**
   * Returns the identifiers of the nature sets that this nature belongs to. Nature set inclusion is
   * specified by the <code>"one-of-nature"</code> element on a nature extension. Returns an empty
   * array if no nature sets are specified for this nature.
   *
   * @return an array of nature set ids that this nature belongs to, possibly an empty array.
   */
  public String[] getNatureSetIds();

  /**
   * Returns whether this project nature allows linked resources to be created in projects where
   * this nature is installed.
   *
   * @return boolean <code>true</code> if creating links is allowed, and <code>false</code>
   *     otherwise.
   * @see IFolder#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int,
   *     org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
   * @see IFile#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int,
   *     org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
   * @since 2.1
   */
  public boolean isLinkingAllowed();
}
